STRESS CAUSES HAIR LOSS AND HAIR LOSS CAUSES STRESS

Which came first?

Continuing from last time Trichologist Dr Shamsher talks more about the relation of stress and hair fall.

This unfortunate incident says it all – 

Stress caused by hair fall is real. While Hair fall is of course never injurious to your health, but there are Health related quality of life (HRQL) studies that have shown the amount of stress some people experience with hair fall is comparable to that with patients experience when they suffer from cancer or any other life threatening disorder.

Dr Shahid Shamsher is a leading Trichologist certified from UK, Australia & India. He consults at Dr Health Clinics and can be contacted on 42067474 to 75.

STRESSES FOR TRESSES – PART 2

Last week we read how stress causes hair loss. This week Trichologist Dr Shahid Shamsher talks some more on this topic.

Q1. Everyone has some degree of stress. How can we have zero stress?
We cannot. But it is important to different good stress called Eustress from bad stress called Distress. For eg: packing your bags for holiday abroad is also stressful, but that is eustress. This will not cause any damage. But if you are waiting to get the visa for your job abroad and every day passes by and you still don’t get any news- that’s distress. That can affect your hair negatively. High sales targets, night shift work, travelling 2 hrs to work and back every day in peak traffic, answering work calls at home late at night, are other examples of distress.

Q2. So what to do then?
One solution is to limit the damage to the hair roots early. For example, when Acute Telogen Effluvium develops, there is change in the growth to fall ratio leading to hair fall in huge bunches, making the patient very scared. At the same time, if ATE is treated in the early stages, it allows a good amount of re growth as well.

Next week- Stress causes hair fall and hair fall causes stress. Which came first?

Dr Shahid Shamsher is a leading Trichologist certified from UK, Australia & India. He consults at Dr Health Clinics and can be contacted on 42067474 to 75.

 

STRESSES FOR YOUR TRESSES

In the next few articles, Trichologist Dr Shahid Shamsher talks about the impact of stress on hair.

Q1. The biggest problem is finding if you are stressed or not? How to know that?

Check your sleep and your appetite. If you are sleeping less than 7-8 hrs daily, never mind if day or night, but less than 7-8 hrs, and if you are losing weight without any apparent reason, there is a very good chance you are stressed.

Q1. But does it cause baldness?

Stress can cause two types of hair loss – one is a condition called Acute Telogen Effluvium (ATE), where there is sudden onset of hair loss in bunches, but then stops on its own after sometime. This is seen in children who appear for 10^th and 12^th std exams. Wait for 2-3 months and it should be fine. The other more dangerous type is the long term baldness seen in executives and others in corporate life, who travel much and have high levels of stress to boot. In many such cases, there is not just hair fall, but the hair goes white very quickly as well with premature graying appearing even in body hair like beard and chest in men.

Next week- Can we avoid stress?

Dr Shahid Shamsher is a leading Trichologist certified from UK, Australia & India. He consults at Dr Health Clinics and can be contacted on 42067474 to 75.

HAIR FALL WITH WRONG PRODUCTS

In the last 3 episodes we saw first how to identify your scalp-type, then how to choose the right product for you, and the truth behind herbal products. In this final episode we will discuss about something called product incompatibility.

What is product incompatibility? How common is it?

It is a phenomena in which products used at the same time react with each other causing damage to the hair. Lets say you are using Shampoo A and Conditioner B. While individually they maybe very good products, but when used at the same time, they react with each other and often aggravate the hair loss. Product incompatibility is not only very common, but unfortunately, also very much unnoticed. While hair damage due to procedures like straightening, perming etc occur only by a few people, product incompatibility affects a much larger group of people, because this involves commonly used every day hair care products like shampoos, conditioners, oils, hair dyes etc.

But hair care is also very confusing.

I think we make it confusing for ourselves. If we see the hair care followed by the earlier generation, all they would do is wash the head regularly keeping it clean. Now we have a far greater choice of products to use, but the irony is that our generation seems to have much more hair loss than the earlier generation did.

Dr Shahid Shamsher is a leading Trichologist certified from UK, Australia & India. He consults at Dr Health Clinics and can be contacted on 42067474 to 75.

 

HERBAL! REALLY?

One of the most commonly asked question is- Can please recommend a herbal product?

Most people think that if they use a herbal product their hairfall will come down. It’s like a guilt trip – you have done various things to your hair like straightening, coloring or have not been putting enough oil and now it’s falling. So let’s redeem ourselves by going to the altar of herbalism! That will absolve us of our sins and restore the hair to its glorious past. Hair heaven! But before you get all pious and rush to buy that herbal product, keep in the mind these red flags –

1. Herbal products cannot last on shelf.

A pure herbal product should not have preservatives which makes it extremely fragile. This means you have to use it up within 3-4 days of preparation. Like food. Now if you are using a so-called herbal shampoo which is kept on the shelf for many months and is supposed to still retain its magical herbal properties, then please ask yourself how that is possible, without preservatives? And if synthetic preservatives are added, how does it still remain a herbal product?

2. A drop of herb is all you get.

A popular brand of almond oil sells a bottle of the stuff for just 50 bucks. How do they do it when almond oil is so expensive? They do it by keeping the bottle 95% liquid paraffin to which they add just a drop or two of almond oil. That’s how they afford it. And this brings me to the last point

3. It’s all about the money, honey.

Did you know the government gives duty cuts to products labeled herbal? This is to promote local products. So many smart companies add a drop of herb, label the product herbal so that they get the duty cuts from the government, and thus sell it at a price cheaper than its competitor. And here you were waiting to get all blessed.

Dr Shahid Shamsher is a leading Trichologist certified from UK, Australia & India. He consults at Dr Health Clinics and can be contacted on 42067474 to 75. 

 

HAIR FALL WITH WRONG PRODUCTS

Last week we saw how to identify your scalp-type. This week is on how to select the right hair care product.

Which are the right products to use?

There is no completely right or wrong product. What may suit one person very well, may in fact worsen the condition for someone else. It is important to understand is your scalp-type (as seen in the last week’s article) and then choose a product. For example a person with a dry scalp will be better with a moisturizing shampoo, whereas a person with oily scalp will be better off with a deep cleansing one. However this is the last thing we keep in mind whilst selecting a product. Most of us simply use something that a friend recommends, because he or she got good results with it, or a husband ends up using his wife’s shampoo because it’s the wife who does the shopping at supermarkets. But that does not work. If you don’t have time to shop, you will not wear your wife’s clothes, would you? Similarly the same shampoo will not suit both. And for friends, who insist on copying each other, I have only one thing to say – Grow up. You are not twins.

Next week – What is a mild or herbal product?

Dr Shahid Shamsher is a leading Trichologist certified from UK, Australia & India. He consults at Dr Health Clinics and can be contacted on 42067474 to 75.

First thing to do is find out where your scalp is dry or oily. You can know for yourself by performing a simple test called tissue paper test. This is how it’s done: – First, do not wash your head for 2 days in a row. Then press a tissue paper against your scalp (not hair) with only your index finger, and hold it there for about 20 seconds. Remove the paper and assess the size of wet patch. If its size is negligible then you have a dry scalp. If the size is that of your finger tip or even bigger, then chances are you have an oily scalp. Another way to assess the state of your scalp is to see how much you sweat. Generally people who sweat more or sweat easily also tend to have more oily scalps. Once you have understood your scalp type, following the correct hair care then becomes very easy.

Next week – choosing the right mix of hair care products.

Dr Shahid Shamsher is a leading Trichologist certified from UK, Australia & India. He consults at Dr Health Clinics and can be contacted on 42067474 to 75. 

IS BANGALORE KILLING MY HAIR???

Frequently asked by people who are from out of town and start losing hair in Bangalore. The following are the reasons-

Change of water – Sometimes is causes just a temporary hair loss. Wait for 2-3 months and you may adjust to the new water and environment. If it does not in that much time, then it may need treatment.

Scalp infections – Moving from out of town also means moving into newer constructions where the water supply is not very hygienic causing scalp infections. When coupled together with the wrong hair care procedures the result can be baldness.

Stress – If every time you go back to your hometown the hair fall comes down and then every time you come to Bangalore, and it goes up, consider this possibility. Stress is not always overt. It can be in the subconscious.

Diet – If you are bachelor eating in a mess every day, there is a very good chance of developing deficiencies. Many youngsters skip meals especially breakfast. If you don’t have time for breakfast, have at least a fruit like banana or apple and a glass of milk. An egg a day is also very useful here.

Dr Shahid Shamsher is a leading Trichologist certified from UK, Australia and India. He consults at Dr Health Clinics and can be contacted on 42067474 to 75.

DID YOU KNOW…….?

Trichologist Dr Shahid Shamsher tell us unusual but true facts about hair.

More reasons to save your hair…… Each human strand is made up of 14 elements including traces of gold.

New spin on hair oil….. Hair absorbs oil from water like a natural sponge and has even been used by some eco groups to clean up oil spills.

Something to tell your girlfriend if she has hair loss….
Hair when wet can stretch upto 30% its length without breaking and anticipation of sex is known to lead to faster hair growth.
Making money from your hair….
Blonde hair is the most expensive of all different types of hair. A mere 100g of blonde hair can even fetch upto Rs 1,00,000.
Let the finance Minister not hear this…..
In 17th century Russia, the king would charge a beard tax to be paid by people who wanted to grow beards as it was considered a burden on society.
And lastly “baal ke liye sala kuch bhi karega”…………
In Ancient Egypt a routine hair loss treatment consisted of the following– Fat from hippopotamus, a crocodile and snake, mixed with porcupine hair, hoof of a donkey and cooked in oil and applied to scalp for four days.

Dr Shahid Shamsher is a leading Trichologist certified from UK, Australia & India. He consults at Dr Health Clinics and can be contacted on 42067474 to 75.

 

 

STRESS AND SCALP INFECTIONS

In the fourth part of the series on scalp infections, Trichologist Dr Shahid Shamsher talks about how stress can cause increase in scalp infections and hair loss.

Just last week I had a patient who is the senior manager of a popular IT company who developed nearly 10-15 boils on his scalp within a short period of 3-4 days. On speaking to him I realized that it is because recently he has undergone tremendous stress due to the various reversals in business because of which he has to now layoff nearly 25 odd employees under him. The last few days he has been trying to figure out whom to remove and who to keep which is causing him sleepless nights.

When the body experiences this type of sudden and severe stress it increases the secretion of certain hormones in the body, especially cortisol. Cortisol in turn is known to increase the sebum secretion which is a rich source of food for the various infections which then grow and flourish on the scalp. Scalp infections in turn damage your hair roots causing more hair fall and baldness eventually.

Dr Shahid Shamsher is a leading Trichologist certified from UK, Australia & India. He consults at Dr Health Clinics and can be contacted on 42067474 to 75.